Hi All,
I have two siblings who are very into rafting/kayaking/water sports. I was going to get them a Strutter Helmet and custom paint art on to it. Has anyone worked something like this before or know of others who have?
I’m hoping to find out what materials have worked with Carbon Fiber and what type of coating would be good for a lot of use / sun?
Thanks for the help!
I think the inner head liner is carbon fiber, and the outside is some form of thermoformed plastic polymer. Krylon spray paints work on those kind of surfaces. The effect is very" ghetto" imho. I have a friend who has a similar helmet and she has had obscene decals made up ( this is pretty easy to do online). the decals wear out from bumps and abrasions. Whitewater helmets tend to get a pretty good beating so a paint job won’t last long. Your best bet would be to contact the company and see what they recommend.
Thanks for the comment!
The company recommends not altering their equipment… but I’ll still give it a try. Spray paint may be the way I go but I’m hoping to find something I can free hand and cover with a clear protective surface.
and yes, they also have Long Fiber Thermoplastic listed on their ‘shell technology’ so I may have mixed up which was on the outside.
I’ve used Krylon spray paint with a small brush to do lettering by just spraying some into a plastic disposable cup. It worked fine, but not sure would be high enough quality for what you want to do. I’ve also used Testor’s Model Airplane paint to decorate some epoxy fiberglass wave skis and polyethylene white water boats. I wonder if an automotive store might be able to give you some ideas for paints and protective coatings or people who race motorcycles since they use similar helmets.
I never did this so I can’t attest to the results, but when I wanted to decorate one of my kayaking helmets, I was advised to use a pour on epoxy by Environmental Technology for the final coat. The high gloss variety. I was going to put glitter in that coat. Unfortunately our old forum is no longer so I can’t look into the specifics. I bet you can find YT videos.